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Kristin, Gayle, Julie and Diana welcome you to The Scrappy Tree!

We are four girls from different sides of the world who love to be creative. From California, Minnesota and Illinois in the US to Wales in the UK, we love sharing projects and trying something new, always keeping the sense of fun that brought us together.

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The Scrappy Tree Design Team

Kristin

Gayle

Julie

Diana

Thanks for visiting Today!

Friday, February 4, 2011

One of our goals here at The Scrappy Tree is to provide you with inspiration to make art a part of your life, no matter what form that means to you. One way we'd like to do just that is by offering an art book review. The first book review of 2011 is from Dawn DeVries Sokol and it is entitled, 1000 Artist Journal Pages, published by Quarry Books in 2008.

Now I am a relative new comer to Art Journaling and the cover art immediately drew me in and I wanted to take a closer look! The journal on the cover just spoke to me! One thing that I would like to point out about this book is that it is for the beginner to advanced art journal artist.

The foreword starts off with a wonderful question, "Why Journal?" (pg. 8) The answers given are absolutely inspirational. Bridgette Guerzon Mills gives this response:

"Art journaling is an inner dialoque with my innermost self-a dialoque that keeps me true to myself and keeps me on my toes. As artists, we are constantly having this same inner dialoque through visual means. Wasn't it Picasso that said painting is just another way of keeping a diary? I find that painting and keeping a journal combine the two sides of me-I am a visual person, but I also love the written word. And they both are vehicles through which my perspective of the world and my experiences get a voice."(1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 pg. 8)

After the foreword, Dawn DeVries Sokol gives us the introduction to this book of inspiration and appeals to our voyeuristic side by asking, "What is so thrilling about looking into the pages of someone's art journal, going beyond the covers to find a curious gathering of thoughts, observations, random notes, and sketches?" (1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 pg. 10). And just why is it that we peek into these artist's worlds? For me, I love to see what another person values, what is impacting their life in a such a way as to commit it to paper artistically. Perhaps the biggest question Sokol asks in the introduction is "...what makes some of us dare to share these pages, to expose ourselves?" (1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 pg. 10) Showing their journal pages is an "act of sharing (themselves)." (1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 page 10).

After the introduction, comes a wonderful list of journaling prompts, perfect to inspire any beginner or give the seasoned journal artist a creative spark.

The next 300 pages are devoted to the gallery of artist journal pages shared by amazing artists from all over the globe. Each artist has such a unique style. All of the pages show an artist's inner self in different ways! I was truely awestruck. I have chosen a few pages to share with you today.

The above page is from Stacie Rife (1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books 2008 pg. 91) The following is also from Stacie Rife (pg. 90).

The following is from Renee Plains:

(1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, pg. 23)

The following pages are from Kris A. Bishop and Kristin A. Livelsberger:

(1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 pg. 161)

The following pages are from Kerri Posson:

(1000 Artist Journal Pages, Quarry Books, 2008 pg. 160)

There were so many pages that it was really hard to pick just a few to show. There are 1000 pages to see when you pick up this book. It is not short on inspiration and creativity!

After a tour of the wonderful artist journal pages, a reader will find a great Resources page (pg. 314-315) that list places you can find art journaling supplies, art journaling magazines, books and online inspiration. After these two pages, each contributing journal artist is listed. I'd like to cite the ones used in this post.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into this book and I look forward to bringing you another book review later this month. If you have any suggestions for future topics of reviewed books or actual titles, please leave me a comment! I'd love to hear from you!